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I Happened To Be Praying

It was beautiful today, hiking Borderland State Park. I was dressed in layers, and hand and toe warmers. None of it was needed. The temperature was in the 40's and the sun was strong. Naturally, we couldn't go out on the ice, but walking the trails was nice. We followed deer tracks, and probably dog tracks, but we pretended they were fox's.

The air was so crisp, clean, and clear. You just had to pause and pray.

I Happened To Be Standing by Mary Oliver

I don't know where prayers go, or what they do.Do cats pray, while they sleep half-asleep in the sun?Does the opossum pray as it

The Trail Hikers

crosses the street?The sunflowers? The old black oak growing older every year?I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees,with my mind filled with things of little importance, in fullself-attendance. A condition I can't really call being alive.Is a prayer a gift, or a petition, or does it matter?The sunflowers blaze, maybe that's their way.Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.

This is part of a poem in Mary Oliver's new book, A Thousand Mornings. The rest of the poem is on page 3-4. But prayer is all this and more. It's a spiritual mystery, and no God is any good without mystery. If you understood Him and His ways, you wouldn't be you. You'd be God.

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January: Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
February: American Treasurers by Stephen Puleo
March: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
April: Life in a Jar by Jack Mayer
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June: The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin
July: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
August: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

I'm happy to realize that I've read five of these selections, already.

In my conversational Spanish class, we translate articles we read in Spanish. To be different, I decided to translate a recipe. To get an "A" for a grade, I decided to make the dish and bring it to class to eat.

The dish was Pez Amarillo. The translation is Yellow Fish. It didn't come out like the picture but it tasted good. The fish was supposed to be catfish. Well, the fish markets around here don't carry catfish. I thought tilapia would taste like it. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have gone with "taste," but rather texture. The picture shows a fish that looks like kabobs. The tilapia disintegrated into rice-looking tiny flakes.

Another problem was the measurements. Instead of teaspoon and tablespoon, the Spanish said "g." It couldn't mean gram; that's too much. The teacher said it meant, "grain." Grain! How could I separate one grain out of a powder of cumin?

Faith is a Lay Dominican with a dual apostolate of cyberministry and prison ministry. She blogs here about her "cloistered brothers," her thoughts, spirituality, prayer, and an occasional poem or two.
She also blogs at http://www.21stcenturydominican.com/ She also updates her chapter's blog, Our Lady of Mercy Chapter,http://sites.google.com/site/ourladyofmercychapter/
Lastly, but in no way, of lesser importance, Faith is the general editor of ELUMEN, the internet newsletter for Lay Dominicans in the Eastern Province of St. Joseph. http://www.3op.org/
To subscribe to ELUMEN, contact prouille_1216@comcast.net
May all I do be for the greater glory of God.